The Reality Bathtub

But even so, what if we didn't have this knowledge?

One of the things Buddhism, by its very nature, does is bring your awareness pointedly toward whatever concepts you cling to most fiercely, and with all the compassion of the Noble Ones, then blithely rubs your nose in them….. So it was for me, as I began to realize how often I had been judgmental of my fellow beings just because what they understood about the nature of reality was different than my own concept!

I returned to my contemplation of a tree just outside the window of the dharma center, and tried to imagine all the ways I might perceive its movement, if I had never reached my current understanding of the nature of reality. For instance:

If I walked down a street and saw a tree move, might I assume that my walking made it move? Quite possibly. But what if, on another street on a windy day, the trees moved when I didn't, could I conclude that some other person's footsteps had moved them? Or that I could only move the trees on the previous street?

Why yes-I might conclude anything.

There is a wonderful book by Shunryu Suzuki called Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind which addresses just these issues: that, in order to become enlightened, one must fully examine every experience as though it has never happened to one before, and therefore one can have formed about it no preconceived notions.

So, now-you try. I'll turn my back while you slip into the Reality Bathtub. Now, what do you see? Nothing yet? Well…that's okay.

You see, being in the tub isn't nearly as important as the realization that its sides are both flexible and transparent. That means: your reality doesn't end when it hits a barrier called "me"-and I can see inside your tub, because when I look at you I also see myself.

Could you pass the soap, please? Meanwhile, keep looking. You never know what you'll see next…

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